


we run with the wolves in the shadows

by caitlesshea



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Found Family, Immortal Husbands, M/M, the team misses booker even though theyre pissed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:15:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25530418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caitlesshea/pseuds/caitlesshea
Summary: “What?” Booker says gruffly as he pulls open the door and then stares at them incredulously.“Sebastien.” Nicky says as he shoulders his way into the apartment. “This place is filthy. Where is the kitchen?”OrJoe and Nicky find Booker and bring him home.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 44
Kudos: 662





	we run with the wolves in the shadows

**Author's Note:**

> I loved the brief moment we got to see of Joe & Booker watching the game and I wanted to recreate that, but post-canon. 
> 
> Really this was just an excuse to make Nicky a food snob.

“So how many times did you actually kill each other before you realized you couldn’t die?”

Joe looks up at the sound of Nile asking both he and Nicky a question. 

Nicky shrugs like he doesn’t remember but Joe _knows_ he does, because how could he forget such a thing, but before he can answer, Nicky does. 

“Enough.” 

Joe nods his agreement and Nile looks like she’s about to argue with them but decides not to when Andy pokes her head into the living room.

“They were alive when I found them, so killing each other was a moot point.”

“Okay, but you dreamed of each other right?” Nile asks this question to Andy, who answers with more patience than Joe’s ever seen her have. 

Nicky nods towards their room and Joe follows, glad to be escaping the questions for now. 

“We can’t avoid him forever.” Nicky says before the door is fully shut, picking up their earlier discussion of finding Booker. 

Joe has been _steadily_ avoiding the conversation for the last five months, but with Nile’s questions and Andy’s mortality, they can’t avoid it forever, or even the hundred years they told him. 

“We can.”

“You are being petulant.”

Joe pouts and Nicky crosses the room and pulls Joe to his chest. Joe goes willingly as he kisses Nicky. 

“Fine, I assume you found him?”

“He’s in France.”

Joe snorts, because Booker is nothing but not predictable.

“Of course he is.”

“We’ll leave in the morning.” 

**~~~**

Telling Andy and Nile that they were leaving the safe house for a couple of days was easier than Joe thought. 

Although, if he’s being honest, he’s pretty sure Andy knows where they’re headed. 

“All the beautiful places in Paris and he picks this place?” Joe snarks as he pulls his sunglasses down to look at the building they tracked Booker to.

“His son lived here.” Nicky says quietly. Joe looks at him sharply.

“You remember where his son lived over three hundred years ago but not how many times we killed each other?”

Nicky looks back at him sharply. “It was four times, Yusuf, and it’s not that I don’t remember. It’s that I don’t _want_ to.” 

Joe grabs Nicky’s hand, suddenly choked up, and squeezes. 

“ _Amore_.” Joe whispers as he puts his forehead against Nicky’s and Nicky squeezes his hand back. 

“C’mon. We have to go to the market, you know he hasn’t eaten a proper meal in months.” 

Joe chuckles, loving Nicky even more.

“Lead the way.”

**~~~**

“This place is really a shit hole.” Joe says as they walk up the stairs to Booker’s apartment. Nicky scowls at him and knocks on the door. 

They hear shuffling coming from inside the apartment , what sounds like bottles falling to the floor, and Joe winces at a loud crash while Nicky sighs. 

“What?” Booker says gruffly as he pulls open the door and then stares at them incredulously. 

“Sebastien.” Nicky says as he shoulders his way into the apartment. “This place is filthy. Where is the kitchen?”

Booker points towards a doorway and Nicky nods his head and disappears. 

“Booker.” Joe claps him on the shoulder and walks past him to sit on the couch.

“What are you doing here?” 

“I’m gonna watch the game.” Joe puts his feet up and lifts up the remote. “You pay the bill?”

Booker nods wordlessly and Joe finds the right channel and settles in.

“Is Andy?” Booker looks away and then looks back at Joe. 

“Everyone’s fine.” 

“And you two?” Booker looks towards the sounds coming from the kitchen. 

“We are here.” 

“Yeah. But why?”

“We will explain after you eat.” Nicky says as he appears with a plate of antipasto. “And after you drink this. And this.” Nicky places two water glasses in front of Booker and Booker nods his thanks. 

“Is this?” 

“Don’t be silly. This is a snack. I’ll be back.” Nicky leaves as quickly as he came and Joe chuckles as he steals some meat and cheese.

“You really thought this was all he was going to feed you?”

“No.” Booker smiles as he drinks his water. 

“So you’re not going to tell me why you’re here?”

“Not yet. C’mon, I wanna watch France lose.”

Booker throws a pillow at him and Joe smirks. 

**~~~**

In what feels like no time at all Nicky is balancing three bowls of some kind of pasta salad in his arms as he comes back into the living room. 

“I couldn’t make a sauce like I wanted and I know you’re hungry.” Nicky says as he hands Booker his bowl and sits down next to Joe. 

“It’s okay. Thanks.”

“You need better pots and pans.” Nicky waves his hands towards the kitchen as Joe laughs. 

“He doesn’t really cook, Nicolò.”

“Still.” Nicky looks pointedly at Booker. “We taught you better.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Booker says around a mouthful of pasta as he shovels more food into his mouth. Nicky looks on disapprovingly but starts eating himself. 

“I didn’t expect to see either of you.” Booker says quietly, much closer to sober than when they arrived. 

Joe sighs, and figures they should just have the conversation now instead of putting it off for even longer. Nicky nods his head at Joe and Joe leans forward so his hands are on his knees. 

“We’re…” Joe starts and Nicky coughs so Joe starts again. “ _I’m_ still mad, but we want you to come back.”

“Why?” 

“Because you’re family.” Nicky answers.

“You still said a _hundred_ years.”

“We were angry.” 

Booker scoffs and looks away. 

“Sebastien.” Joe says and Booker looks at him with surprise on his face. Joe hasn’t called Booker by his birth name in over a century. 

“When we were taken, Nicky wasn’t waking up in the van.” Joe clears his throat as Nicky squeezes his hand. Booker looks stricken but Joe continues. “Terror, like I haven’t known in hundreds of years, gripped me. And then, when we were fighting in the lab, Keane shot Nicky in the head.” 

Joe looks over at Nicky and leans his forehead against Nicky’s briefly before turning back to Booker who has tears in his eyes. 

“He didn’t wake up right away and I thought…”

“Joe.”

“No.” Joe wipes at his own eyes. “I need to say this.”

Booker nods at him and Joe continues.

“I don’t even know what I thought to be honest. It was just terror and anguish. He’s been hurt before, even by my own hand, but never like that.”

“Not by you.” Nicky murmurs and Joe smiles slightly. 

“I don’t ever want to feel like that again. And then I realized, through my anger, that you do feel like that. About your family, your wife, and your sons.”

Booker let’s out an exhale and slumps forward in his chair. 

“We still don’t trust you. And I don’t know how long that will take, but we need our family together, while Andy is still with us.” 

“Has she?”

“She doesn’t have to.” Nicky says and Booker nods. “But we can’t let our feelings keep you from her, when we don’t know what will happen.”

“Thank you.”

Joe nods. “You’re also the only one who can help Nile.”

Booker looks questioningly at Joe and Joe smiles sadly.

“We don’t.” Joe clears his throat. “We don’t remember what it’s like to have family still living and not be able to see them.” Joe scoots closer to Nicky and Nicky leans into him. “We don’t know how to help her.”

“And you think I can?”

“We were the ones who pushed for your exile. Andy said she’d already forgiven you and Nile said that the two of you had connected but left it up to us. So, if you want, I think you can help her.”

“Okay.” Booker smiles and Joe feels lighter than he has in months. “But first I need a shower.”

Nicky laughs, bright and happy. 

“You really do.”

**~~~**

Joe unlocks the door to the safe house and smiles when he hears Andy and Nile bickering.

“Honey! We’re home!” Joe shouts through the house smiling at Nicky’s laughter and Booker’s snort.

“You gonna tell us where you two went?” Andy says as she rounds the corner into the entryway and pauses mid stride when she sees Booker.

“Book.” Andy breathes out as Booker hugs her. Andy mouths ’thank you’ at them and Joe and Nicky nod in return. 

“Hey, kid.” Joe hugs Nile and she scoffs at the nickname before she goes to hug Nicky and then Booker. 

Joe’s about to ask Andy if they missed anything when the computer Copley gave Nile let’s out a shrill sounding alarm.

“Shit.” Nile runs over and furiously starts typing. 

“What happened?” Nicky says as they all crowd closer to her. 

Nile turns the computer around to face them and it feels like Joe’s been sucker punched. He looks quickly to Nicky and Andy, and they look the same as he feels, while Booker’s mouth is hanging open. 

“I set up alarms for the computer to notify me if it ever found anything. Keywords and such.”

Joe reads the article Nile has displayed on the screen and right there in bold letters it says:

**“Fishing Boat Captain finds an Iron Maiden on one of their voyages.”**

But that’s not what has them all staring. No. It’s the photo of the Captain with the Iron Maiden and off to the side there’s a woman looking at the camera. 

“Quynh.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Come find me on Tumblr - same username!


End file.
